Caught In The Middle
by NightReader22
Summary: It was supposed to be a simple case, but soon the boys find themselves caught up in a much more complicated supernatural web. Can they solve the case, and keep the young woman thrown into the mix safe from their lives at the same time? Set in season 11, so some spoilers possible, but mostly just a side story of my own creation. Please read and review!
1. Chapter 1: Knives

"Fine" I shouted as I slammed the door behind me and began to walk, fuming, not only at the argument I had just left, but at the fact that I had just stormed out of my own house! If anyone should have been leaving it should have been her. My housemate. But it had become clear that she was not going to walk away from the fight. So I had.

"Justifiable homicide" I muttered darkly, imagining nasty things. I'd never do it of course, but it cheered me up slightly to think about it as I stomped off down the street, going no-where in particular. The sun was starting to set and the air was getting cold. I hadn't thought to grab a coat but I didn't care, I was too worked up, and there was no way I was going back home till at least one of us had cooled down enough to avoid words turning into something physical. We'd met at a martial arts class, it probably wouldn't end well. For either of us.

I was too wrapped up in my own thoughts to even notice that there were others on the street at first. Even when I heard the shouting I just kept on stomping along, glaring at the concrete. It was even a little comforting to know that we weren't the only ones fighting today, and at least we had done it indoors rather than on the footpath. I briefly considered switching to the other side of the street, but decided that it was there problem, not mine, if they wanted to get into a public argument.

Of course if I had bothered to listen to what they were shouting about, I might have saved myself from a world of pain.

He grabbed so abruptly that I couldn't even react before I felt the sharp pain of a knife against my side. I froze as my anger was quickly replaced by fear, taking shallow breaths as I tried to get a handle on the situation I had just walked into.

"Easy there." The man in front of me had one hand up in a calming gesture, but the other was firmly gripping the handle of a knife. Great. Just great, I had gone and walked into a bloody knife fight. No, I thought, not a fight, not yet anyway, looked like they were both just threatening each other. At least not until I walked into the equation.

The man behind me was speaking now. "You'd rather die than give it to me, fine. Give it to me Dean or she dies." I whimpered a little as he pushed the knife in a little harder to make his point, enough to break the skin and send a small trickle of blood down my side.

I tried to remember what we had learnt in class about attackers with knives. It was hard to think over the sound of my thumping heart. Give them what they want. Despite all the practice drills we did, that had been our instructor's advice if you were ever actually attacked with a knife, just give them what they want. But what if you weren't the one who had what they wanted? I stared at the man in front of me, Dean. The man who's decision would either save or kill me. I didn't know him, which in this small town meant he wasn't local, and anyway, he was a memorable sort of guy. He was tall, muscular, with short brown hair and piercing green eyes. He looked like this was far from his first knife fight, and I wondered if he would even care if this guy gutted me. I shuddered at the thought.

"Let the girl go. I don't have what you want." He said it calmly, but with a firmness that said don't mess with me. The knife slid a little deeper in response and I cried out, a tear slipping down my face. "Please" I whispered, staring into his eyes. Please don't let him kill me. He met my gaze and his eyes softened for just a moment, "You just stay calm, ok?" he said before returning his focus to the man behind me. I nodded, returning to my study of him to take my mind off the knife slowly burying itself in my side. He was wearing a canvas jacket that looked too warm for the season, although I figured it was probably a good thing to have if you made it a habit of getting into knife fights. I suppressed this stupid urge to giggle at the thought.

The man behind me broke the silence that had stretched between them. "I know you have it" he practically shouted, making me flinch. "You or your brother," he gave a dark chuckle that sent shivers down my spine, "and don't worry, someone else is already dealing with him." I saw a brief flash of fear in Dean's eyes as they flicked towards the laneway behind him, then back to us. He hid it again fast, but it was enough. Seeing a hard man like him afraid, now I was downright terrified. I started to shake, my breath speeding up. He glanced at me again, seeming to assess me for a moment, and then returned his attention to the man, eyes hard with hatred. "You touch Sam and –" "You'll kill me" the man finished for him, sounding almost bored, "I bet you say that to all the boys" he said with another dark chuckle.

I was going to hyperventilate if I didn't calm down. I focused again on his clothes. He was wearing a plaid shirt under the jacket, which was strange enough to distract me a little. Even out here pretty much no one actually wore plaid anymore. He had on sturdy, military style boots. And to top it all off a pair of denim jeans, that I couldn't help but notice, even in my current state, fit just perfectly in all the right places. This time I couldn't help the slightly hysterical giggle that slipped out.

It seemed to startle both of them for a moment, but Dean recovered quicker, and it was all the distraction he needed. Quick as a flash he aimed and threw his knife towards us.

I screamed, feeling pain slice through me before the world spun into blackness.


	2. Chapter 2: Blood

I heard the scream as I ran down the laneway in the direction Dean had been travelling when we'd been split up by the demons. It wasn't him, it sounded like a woman, but as I rounded the corner I saw him on his knees next to someone, and there was blood everywhere.

"Dean!" I called out, scanning the area for threats as I approached. "I'm ok." He answered, no doubt hearing the worry in my voice, "Blood's not mine. You?"

I let out a small sigh of relief, "I'm fine. The demon?" He nodded his head a little "Dead. Got in a parting shot though." I realised as I reached him that there was a young woman slumped on top of the demon that Dean had chased down. "Dammit. Give me a hand here" He was applying pressure to her side with one hand while trying to move her to a better position with the other. "I moved round to the other side of the woman and together we slid her off the dead demon so that she was lying flat on the footpath. I realised as we did so that there was a knife buried in her side. Dean swore, "Get the car we need to get her to a hospital." I nodded and ran down the road to where we had parked the impala.

I realised as I drove back that there was a problem with this plan. "Dean." I said as we carefully lifted her onto a blanket in the backseat, Dean still trying to slow the bleeding, "This town doesn't have a hospital." He stared at me for a moment, "Are you freaking kidding me?" He asked, "What the hell kind of stupid town doesn't have a hospital!" "This one apparently" I answered, earning me a dirty look. He didn't take long to make a decision. "The next town is too far. We're taking her to the cabin." I nodded, trusting his judgement when it came to knife wounds. I ran back to the front and drove off as fast as I dared.

The cabin where we were staying in was about 10 minutes out of town, even ignoring the speed limits, which gave Dean time to check on me. "You're bleeding" he stated with and edge of concern. I glanced down at my right arm, "It's nothing, just a scratch." He just grunted, which I took to mean that he would believe that when he checked it himself. I chuckled lightly, for all his hard-ass façade, he was pretty overprotective. "I'm fine, I promise" I turned serious again as I drove up the winding drive, trying not to hit too many bumps, "How is she holding up?" He didn't answer, which I took to mean not good.

"Who is she anyway?" I asked as I pulled up as close to the house as possible. "No idea" he answered. I shrugged, I guessed it didn't really matter right now anyway. I got the door open and ran back to help carry her inside.

The cabin was a small hunting cabin that we had rented out for the week while were checking out some suspected witch killings in the area. Apart from the fact Dean had liked the humour of staying in a hunting cabin, it was much better than staying in town. New people tended to draw attention in small towns, and we preferred to keep a low profile.

We lay the woman on one of the beds and I went to collect our first aid supplies while Dean cut away her shirt so he could assess the damage better.

I put everything on the table and pulled it closer to the bed. Then I went to the head of the bed to check her vitals. She was quite pretty I couldn't help but notice as I pushed her blonde hair aside to check her pulse. I wondered again how she had got involved, but now was not the time to ask. "Pulse is rapid and weak" I told Dean. He nodded, "Grab a towel, she's lucky the knife was only small, and I'm fairly sure it's missed anything vital, but this is going to bleed pretty bad when I pull it out."

I did as he asked. Ideally we'd leave it in for the professionals to remove, but he had been right when he said it was too far. The closest town was nearly an hour away, and she had already lost a lot of blood. "Ready" I said, and he nodded before gently pulling the knife out of the wound, doing his best to limit any further damage. As soon as it was out I had the towel over the wound and was putting as much pressure as possible onto it.

Now we just had to hope it hadn't severed any major arteries. Both of us could sew someone up almost as good as a doctor these days, but we weren't surgeons.

After a few tense minutes I gently lifted the towel so we could assess the wound, and breathed a sigh of relief. The bleeding had slowed considerably. It was still a nasty wound, but she was lucky, the blade had been wide but short, leaving her with a nearly 2 inch hole in her side, but no apparent internal damage.

"Alright" Dean said, "Let's sew her up before she comes to." I nodded, she probably wouldn't cope well with being sewed up by strange men, without anaesthesia, in an old cabin. Most people would react badly to that, let's be honest.

I looked her over curiously while Dean worked. She was probably about 5'5" and had the body of someone who liked to work out. I could see the muscles in her arms and stomach, but at the same time she still looked…feminine, for lack of a better word.

"You're staring" Dean commented with a chuckle. "I am not" I retorted. He grinned, "You are staring. Hey, I won't judge." I rolled my eyes at him then pulled a chair over to the table and began cleaning up the first aid supplies while he finished off the stitches.

"How did she end up involved anyway?" I asked now that he was no longer concentrating so hard. He rolled his eyes again, "Damn girl wasn't looking where she was going. Practically walked into the demons arms!" I raised an eyebrow, "Seriously?" He nodded "Yup. And of course he wasn't going to waste that opportunity for leverage. He grabbed her and held the knife against her side. Told me he'd kill her if I didn't give him what he wanted."

My brow furrowed. "What did they want anyway? The one that attacked me wasn't exactly making sense." Dean shrugged, "Neither was he. Best I could tell they think we have some kind of key."

 ***Edited to remove a couple of mistakes I overlooked yesterday. Please feel free to point out any I might have missed! Reviews very much welcome :)**


	3. Chapter 3: Memories

"A Key?" Sam asked, frowning, "What key?" I just shrugged again, cleaning around the finished stitches. "I have no idea, but they seemed pretty sure that we have it." I grabbed the dressing that Sam was holding out to me with a nod of thanks and covered the wound carefully.

Having finished fixing up the girl, I realised I didn't even know her name. She'd been stabbed because of me, and I had no idea who she was. Honestly I didn't really care about some key right this second. I stood up from my seat at the edge of the bed and stretched for a moment.

"I'm going to clean up" I told Sam, grabbing a clean set of clothes out of my duffel and going to the bathroom. He seemed a little taken aback by my sudden exit, but didn't say anything, just watched me with a thoughtful look that I knew meant I was going to have to answer questions when I came back. I sighed, wishing he'd just mind his own business, but knowing that that was not something my baby brother had ever been good at.

I closed the door behind me and leant on it for a moment, letting the adrenaline from the past hour or so drain away. We'd been busy all day, even before the two demons had ambushed us and somehow split up Sam and I. I wasn't even sure how it had happened. One moment we had been walking back to Baby after talking to the family of one of the dead men we were investigating, and the next I was chasing a black eyed bastard down a laneway with Sammy right behind me. Or so I had thought until the demon had spun around as he ran out towards the road, the knife in his hand forcing me to stop while I determined the best method of attack. I already had the demon killing knife in hand, having pulled it out as I ran.

I realised as soon as we stopped that Sammy was no longer with me, and felt a pang of worry that was quickly pushed aside while I focused on the threat in front of me. Sammy could handle himself, he'd proved that by now.

That reminded me, I still had to check the cut on his arm. It could wait though. I pulled myself out of my thoughts and stripped off the clothes I was wearing. They were covered in her blood. I threw them towards the corner to deal with later and stepped into the shower, letting the stream of hot water wash away the rest of the blood while my mind wandered back again.

I didn't know what to expect from the demon in front of me. Things had gotten more than a little complicated between us and hell over the past couple of years. One thing was for sure though, he wasn't here for a friendly chat.

"Give it to me!" He shouted, causing me to raise an eyebrow, while I tried to figure out which 'it' he might be referring to. We no longer had the Book of the Damned, which was the first thing that popped into my head that Crowley might be after. "Give you what?" I asked with a note of irritation, did he really think I was going to be intimidated by one demon?

"The key!" He shouted, and I couldn't help but notice the touch of desperation in his tone. I could only guess that whatever it was he wanted Crowley was riding his ass till he got it. I smirked a little, unable to resist playing with him a little while I continued trying to work out what it was I wasn't going to be giving him. "Lose your car key, did you?"

He snarled, "Don't play with me Winchester! Either give me the key or I'll kill you and find it myself!" I rolled my eyes at him, watching his anger grow, waiting for him to lose his focus completely before I struck. "Dude, I don't even know what you're talking about" I told him.

And that was when the damn girl had walked up. I saw her stomping up the footpath behind the demon, eyes down as she went to walk past him. Of course he took the opportunity, hell she practically walked into his arms! In an instant she was pulled in front of him and the knife he had been carelessly waving around in anger was now held steady against her side. I forced myself to remain calm and focused on the demon as I saw realisation and fear wash through her. "Easy there" I held up my left hand in a calming gesture, pleased to see that she was at least smart enough to stand still now that she had got herself into this mess. I knew it would end badly if she started to struggle. If I wasn't careful it would end badly anyway.

The demon knew he had gained the upper hand now, and he was calmer, more focused. Much harder to take out. Internally I was swearing, but I didn't let it show, I didn't need him or the girl knowing how in control he was right now. "You'd rather die than give it to me, fine. Give it to me Dean or she dies." He was no longer shouting, but speaking quietly, threateningly. As if to prove his point he put more pressure on the knife, and from the whimper she made and the pain in her eyes I knew he'd broken the skin. Both of us knew that he would kill her without a second thought, but I needed to keep him talking while I tried to regain control of the situation. Where was Sammy when I needed him?

"Let the girl go. I don't have what you want." I told him, he only pushed the knife a little further. She started to cry, and looking at me desperately she whispered, "Please." Damn, the girl had puppy eyes almost as good as Sammy's. I let my gaze soften a little as I gave her my attention for just a moment, "You just stay calm, ok?" I told her, I would only get one shot at what I was thinking and I needed her to continue to stand still. I was relieved when she nodded a fraction and her eyes moved away from my face as she seemed to try and distract herself, a strange look passing over her face with whatever she was thinking about now.

I returned my full focus to the demon, calculating the shot. He had her pulled in front of him, but he wasn't keeping his head in. Good thing it was close range, would make a head shot much easier.

He was staring back at me as I stared at him, apparently waiting for a response that wasn't coming. "I know you have it" he barked at me, then narrowed his eyes slightly, voice returning to a more controlled tone, "You or your brother," he added with a dark chuckle, "and don't worry, someone else is already dealing with him."

I couldn't help flicking my eyes back toward the laneway for a moment, Sam still hadn't appeared, and I was worried. I forced myself to focus again, the only way to help Sam was to kill this bastard first. My voice was tight with anger when I spoke, "You touch Sam and –" "You'll kill me" he responded before I could finish, giving another dark chuckle before adding "I bet you say that to all the boys."

I just narrowed my eyes, shifting my grip on my knife slightly as I prepared to strike. I flicked my eyes to the girl, checking she was going to stay still, it was going to be a close shot as it was. It was lucky I looked, because she was staring down towards my crotch with a bizarre smirk on her face that caught me by surprise. However, it meant that when she let out a strangled giggle I was already recovering from the surprise, whereas the demon was caught totally unaware, giving me the moment of distraction I needed.

I lifted the knife and threw it, hitting him square in the face. I was about to give her a triumphant grin when I heard her scream. I looked down and realised that instead of his arm pulling away as he went down the bastard had managed to push the knife in. "No" I breathed as I ran the couple of steps to catch her as they fell. She was unconscious by the time I had lowered her to the ground.

 _Bang Bang Bang_ I was shaken out of my reverie by Sam banging on the bathroom door. "Hey, dude, come on you're going to use up all the water!" He called through the door. I smirked a little as I turned off the water and called back "Alright, don't get your knickers in a twist!"


	4. Chapter 4: Time

While I waited for Dean to clean up, I went out to the car to clean up the backseat. I had a pretty good idea what was on Dean's mind, and having to deal with the young woman's blood in the backseat of his baby would not help him any.

Thankfully the old blanket I'd thrown down had soaked up the majority of the blood, so it didn't take me long to wipe up the rest with water and an old towel. "Good as new" I said quietly, giving the seat an affectionate pat before heading back inside with the blanket and towel. Good thing the old hunting cabin had a washing machine, even if it was in an outbuilding out the back. The inside of the cabin was too small for it to have been put in there, just big enough for two single beds against one wall, a table and two chairs, small kitchenette and a bathroom.

I stuck my head inside for a moment to check on both the woman and Dean before going to the outbuilding. She was still unconscious, but breathing steadily, so I wasn't too worried. Dean was still in the shower. I shook my head lightly and closed the door again, this long in the shower meant he was thinking, or more accurately over-thinking, about what had happened.

I knew he was feeling guilty. He hated people getting hurt because of him. Hell, he had been willing to let Death send him out into space to avoid just that.

I closed my eyes for a moment, the memory of what had nearly happened still too fresh right now. Then I sighed and finished loading the machine and getting it running, it was just one more crappy memory to learn to live with.

So was today, and I knew Dean would get there eventually, but right now he was going to be touchy. I went past the car on the way back inside to grab the evidence boxes out of the trunk. I knew Dean would appreciate the opportunity to keep busy while he came to terms with, in his eyes, causing someone else to get hurt.

The local police had been more than happy to allow us, i.e. the FBI, to take over the case. They had been totally baffled by two men dying identical, unexplainable deaths, and being such a small town they really weren't equipped to deal with murder in general. As it was the bodies had had to be transported to the morgue in the next town over. We'd dropped in to see them before making our way here.

I placed the two boxes on the floor inside the door and fixed the salt line, checking the windows while I was at it, just to be safe. Then as quietly as possible I moved the table and chairs back to the middle of the room. I didn't want to disturb her. She looked quite peaceful at the moment, something that I was sure would change when she came to. Her wound also had the best chance to start healing while she was laying still. I had a feeling it would take some effort to keep her still once she was awake.

I realised as I stood there looking her over that none of us had bothered to cover her up after Dean had finished stitching. Her shirt was spilled around her on the bed where Dean had pushed it out of the way when he had cut it off to access the wound, leaving her exposed in just her bra. She was laying on top of the bedding, so I grabbed a sheet off the other bed and laid it over her gently.

The shower was still running. I sighed and wandered over to the door. I hesitated for a moment, but decided that he had had plenty of time to think, and more than enough time to clean up. I banged on the door a couple of times and called through the door "Hey, dude, come on you're going to use up all the water!" He didn't need to know that I was worrying about him, he'd talk about it if and when he wanted to. I had had plenty of time to learn that trying to get Dean to talk about something when he didn't want to was worse than pulling teeth. Not that I wouldn't do it if his bottling up started causing issues. Again.

I heard the water shut off and smiled a little as he replied. "Alright, don't get your knickers in a twist!"

I picked up the first box, putting it on the table and sitting down to start properly going through the contents which we'd glanced through at the station.

I'd found the case trawling through police reports, looking for a job where we could actually achieve something. A break from dealing with Amara, our latest 'big bad.' Apparently we just couldn't get a rest from one thing or another trying to destroy the world around us.

Anyway, this one had quickly caught my eye. Two men had been found dead in their homes, having bled out despite no obvious injuries and nothing showing up in their autopsies either. They had both been found by their wives, who had been understandably traumatised when they had come home to find their husband dead in a pool of blood. We had spoken to both of them after leaving the station, or at least tried to. Neither had wanted to talk about it. It was hard to tell if they were hiding something, or just struggling to cope.

Finding a connection between the two deaths was also proving a challenge in such a small town, not because there wasn't one. There were too many. But I was sure that working out which connection had got them killed was key to finding the person, or creature, behind the deaths.

"Let's have a look at that arm." My thoughts were interrupted by Dean as he finally exited the bathroom, now in clean clothes, skin still slightly pink from standing under the hot water so long. I sighed, "It's really nothing" I told him, but starting pulling off my jacket anyway. He wasn't going to let it go, and I knew he would relax just a little once he had reassured himself that I, at least, was fine.

Standing up I dropped the jacket to the floor, it would need patching, having taken the brunt of the demons slash. I pulled of my shirt and dropped it on top, revealing the cut just above my right elbow. Dean prodded around it gently, causing me to wince, as he assessed the damage.

"It needs cleaning" he said gruffly, which was his way of admitting that I was right, it was only a minor injury, not bad enough to need stitches. I just nodded, letting him fuss over me for a minute. Honestly, it was kind of nice to get to see more of his caring side again now that the mark was gone. Not that I was going to tell him that, he'd probably just call me a girl.

I winced again as he washed it thoroughly before coving it with a waterproof dressing. Once he was finished he threw a clean set of clothes at me, "Your turn in the shower," he informed me with a smirk, "you smell."

I caught the clothes and headed for the bathroom. "Nice to know you care" I said smirking back at him. Despite the joking tone, we both knew I meant it.

"Always" I heard him say quietly as I closed the door behind me and I smiled.

I stripped of the rest of my clothes, tossing them on top of Dean's in the corner of the bathroom and stepped into the shower, planning on using up whatever hot water was left.

I was enjoying the steady drumming of the water on my back. Right up until I heard the shouting…

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 **Hope you are all enjoying the story so far! Please let me know what you think!**


	5. Chapter 5: Emotions

I knew something was wrong as soon as I started to wake up, though it took me longer to work out what it was. I was not in my pyjamas. That was the first thing I noticed. I was still in my jeans, my bra… my shoes. I opened my eyes, and realised I had no idea where I was or how I had gotten here. I lay very still as my heart rate shot up in fear and I hoped that this was just a nightmare.

"You can wake up now" I whispered to myself. I heard a quiet chuckle and shot upright, seeing a man sitting at a nearby table before I curled over in agony, crying out as pain laced through my side.

"Whoa, easy, easy." He was beside me in an instant, one steady hand against my back, the other on my shoulder as he slowly lowered me back onto the bed. I squeezed my eyes shut, struggling to breathe through the pain as I let him help me, I didn't seem to have any choice in the matter anyway.

His hand slid out from under my back, though the other stayed on my shoulder. "It's ok. Just breathe. In and out. In and out." I listened to the quiet, steady voice, letting my breathing fall into a steady rhythm with his voice. Once the pain and panic had subsided I slowly reopened my eyes to take in the man sitting over me.

"Dean?" I said quietly, questioningly, as memories began to return. He frowned a little, seeming confused as to how I knew his name, but nodded. I gave him a faint smile as I explained, "I heard him call you that." He nodded again, the confusion being replaced by…was it guilt?

"What…How, how did we end up here?" I asked him, I didn't remember escaping from the man's grasp. He didn't answer, just lifted his hand off my shoulder and stood up, turning away from me for a moment. This time I was sure, it was guilt in his eyes.

I stared at his back, waiting, and after a few moments he spoke, voice low, not looking at me. "I killed him." I raised my eyebrows, not saying anything as I waited for him to continue. The calm way he said it said that that was not the part he felt guilty about. Something to think about later.

The silence stretched out between us as I watched his back. You could practically see the tension rolling off him. Still he didn't speak. Finally I broke the silence. "And…" I prompted, letting out an exasperated sigh when he still didn't answer.

"And" he finally continued quietly, "I misjudged. I got you stabbed."

I blinked a couple of times while I processed the statement. "Y-, what!?" I heard my voice go up several notches, but couldn't seem to bring it back down, "Stabbed!?" I went to sit up again, hating being in such a helpless position right now. I failed, falling back down to the bed with another cry of pain. It at least caused him to turn around again, concern in his eyes as he watched me examine the cause of the pain.

I let my hand brush across the, large, dressing covering my side. Then I carefully ran a fingernail under one corner and started pulling it up. Dean started to protest, but ignored him. I needed to see for myself. He sighed, then just stood, quietly watching me.

I gasped as I pulled the dressing off, staring at the neat row of stitches down my side. After a few moments I looked at him again, my brow furrowing in confusion. "When…where…" I sighed, trying to get my thoughts in order. "You took me to the hospital?" I asked, "Then…why am I here?" It didn't make sense.

"No" he answered, not helping my confusion any. I raised an eyebrow at him, waiting for him to elaborate. He ran a hand through his hair. "The hospital was too far. You would have bled out by the time we got there."

I heard a squeak and realised it had come from me. I had nearly bled out? No wonder I couldn't sit up. "So," I refocused on him as he continued, "We brought you back here. Patched you up."

I stared at him for a moment while the implications of what he had just told me sunk in, then let my eyes drift around the room, taking in the small, dusty, cabin. "You what!?" I shouted in disbelief. "You- YOU sewed me up! Here!?" I shook my head, then let it fall back onto the pillow beneath me and stared at the ceiling. "This is not happening. This cannot be happening." My breath sped up as I chanted it again, sounding slightly hysterical, "This is not happening. Not happening."

He moved towards me again, reaching a hand to my shoulder. "Don't touch me!" I shrieked at him, and saw hurt in his eyes as he let his hand fall back to his side.

"You would have died if we hadn't brought you here" he told me quietly.

"And who's fault would that have been!?" I spat at him. He flinched at the harsh words, and I suddenly regretted them. I took a few heavy breaths, staring down at my hands, resting on my stomach. "I'm sorry." I said quietly, not looking at him. "You have been nothing but nice to me."

I felt his hand rest lightly on my shoulder, and this time I didn't protest. "It's ok," he replied, "It's a lot to take in." I let out a humourless laugh at that, "No kidding." We both went quiet.

The moment was broken when I heard a door open and a strange voice ask, "Hey, everything ok?"

I jumped with fright. I had thought we were alone. The movement caused another wave of pain and I cried out again. "It's ok" he said quietly, and I wasn't sure if he was talking to me or the stranger, "Just breathe, remember?" That one was definitely aimed at me. I took a slow breath, then turned to eye the newcomer warily.

Dean gave a light smile, "It's ok, Sammy won't hurt you." The other man, Sammy, smiled gently, "Hey. How are you feeling?"

I didn't answer, I didn't know how I was feeling right now. Sammy's brow furrowed slightly and looked at Dean, who answered the unspoken question, "Give her a minute" he said quietly.

"We brought you here" I quietly repeated his earlier comment, realising that he had meant someone else had helped. Sammy gave me a confused look, but Dean just chuckled and nodded, "Yeah, Sammy drove us here."

Sammy took a couple of steps closer, looking the two of us over as he approached. I felt a little uncomfortable under his gaze, and remembered that I was laying here with no shirt on. I felt myself blush lightly and grabbed for the edge of the sheet, which was covering the bottom half of my body. I supposed it had been covering all of me before I had tried to sit up earlier. I hoped so.

Dean gently stilled my hands before I could pull it up, "Hang on, I need to redress your wound" he said apologetically. I nodded, letting my fingers play with the edge of the sheet, avoiding the other man's gaze as Dean stood up and walked away. He came back a moment later with fresh dressings and I watched him as he gently covered the wound and taped the dressing into place, his light fingers against my skin giving me goose bumps. I felt myself redden again.

When he was done I pulled the sheet up to my armpits. "Thanks" I said quietly as he moved away from the bed again. He came back a moment later with a glass of water and two pills. I eyed the pills suspiciously, but he just smiled lightly, "Just something to help with the pain," he said, "maybe let you get some sleep." After a moment of hesitation I nodded and he put a hand behind my shoulders to help lift me up enough to swallow the pills.

The two men exchanged a look that I couldn't read, and both moved towards the door. "Get some rest" Dean told me, "We'll be just outside if you need anything." He waited till I had nodded, then walked out, closing the door behind them.

 **Finally got a cover image up today! What do you think?**


	6. Chapter 6: Work

I closed the door behind us, scanning the trees that surrounded the cabin and lined the long driveway. They were a mass of dark shadows in the limited light spilling out of the cabin windows, but nothing stood out as a concern. I let myself relax a little.

I walked the short distance to my baby. Sam followed me, "I cleaned her up already" he told me and I nodded my thanks. I appreciated the gesture, though I would still be giving her a proper detailing when we got back to the bunker.

We both sat down on the hood, staring into the darkness. It was almost peaceful, though I wished I'd thought to grab a couple of beers out of the fridge.

Sam broke the silence first. "How is she?" he asked. I briefly wondered how much he had heard from the bathroom. I sighed "She's confused, she's scared and she's in pain. But she's holding it together pretty well."

He nodded, "So who is she?" I frowned, realising that I still had no idea. I hadn't even got her name. "We didn't get that far." Sam raised an eyebrow, "You didn't get to names?" he said sceptically. "Surely she wanted to know who you were?"

I shrugged, "She already knew mine." Sam gave me a concerned look, "You sure she's not -" I cut him off "I'm sure. Little holy water in her glass when I gave her those pills." He nodded, "Ok, fair enough. So how did she know your name? I don't remember running into her in town." "She overheard the demon say it." I responded, wondering what else she might have picked up from the conversation.

We were both quiet for a moment. "How much does she know?" Sam asked, then added "And how much are you going to tell her?"

"Far as I can tell, not much. All I've told her is that I killed the guy, but not before he could stab her." Sam raised an eyebrow, "How'd she take that?"

I shrugged, "Well for now she was more concerned about getting stabbed than the fact that I killed the guy. And I plan on telling her as little as possible. I'm not going to drag another girl into all this. Bad enough she got hurt because of it, I'm not going to be the one to tell her about everything that goes bump in the night."

I looked away as Sam studied me with those deep eyes of his, knowing the question before he could ask it. "I'm fine" I told him. It came out a little abruptly, and I knew I wasn't fooling anyone, but I hoped that he would let it drop. I wasn't about to have a chick flick moment over it, regardless of what he no doubt wanted.

I let my eyes scan the tree line again, not looking at him till I heard the tell-tale huff that said he was dropping it for now, but wasn't about to let it go entirely. I smiled faintly, it was kind of nice to know he worried about me. Not that I'd tell him that.

I took the opportunity to change the subject. "Learn anything new?" I asked, and then clarified when I saw his confused expression, "About the case. I saw you'd got the evidence boxes out." I hadn't got a chance look through them myself before the girl had woken up and started freaking out. I guess I shouldn't have laughed, but I'd thought she was mumbling in her sleep till she had shot upright. I shook my head slightly at the thought, she was lucky she hadn't ripped any stitches.

Sam was studying me again. "Well?" I prompted. Sam cleared his throat and I could almost see him switching gears from worried brother to hunter and researcher. I couldn't help but smile.

"I haven't had time to properly analyse everything yet. I'd only just started when you got out of the shower. But a couple of things stand out. The two deaths appear to be identical and definitely... out of the ordinary." I nodded, we'd already established with the coroner that they had died of unexplainable blood loss, found in pools of blood, but with no indication of where they had bled out from.

"They were also both found on the kitchen floor, in identical body positions. And both houses were locked when the wives got home, with absolutely no signs that anyone else had been inside."

"We still thinking witch?" I asked. There were a limited number of things that could kill without leaving marks, and witches did seem to have a thing for bodily fluids...

He looked thoughtful. "It's possible, but I haven't found anything to confirm it yet." We both stood up and started heading back to the door, knowing that we needed to finish going through the evidence. We tried not to hang around anywhere for too long, and now that we had left two dead bodies we really needed to wrap this case up before too many questions started getting asked.

"You got your laptop out?" I asked as I opened the door. He nodded, "I'll check the police bulletins" he said, following my train of thought without me needing to explain.

I closed the door quietly behind us, hoping that the girl might have dropped off to sleep. It was 9 o'clock, and she was recovering from a fair bit of blood loss. Honestly she would most likely still benefit from a trip to the hospital, but right now she was stable and moving her wasn't worth the pain it would cause her. Not to mention the questions that would not doubt get asked when we brought her in.

I looked over at her and saw that she was watching us. So much for that hope. Sam smiled at her as we sat down at the table and began to pull out the rest of the boxes' contents. "What's your name?" He asked gently, keeping most of his attention on the paperwork in front of him, giving her space.

"Emily" Came the quiet reply. "Hi Emily. I'm Sam, and I take it you have already met my brother Dean." I glanced up from the crime scene photos in front of me. Her eyes were flicking back and forth between us, I supposed looking for the family resemblance, while Sammy smiled at her encouragingly. He had a knack for gaining people's trust, a talent that certainly came in handy when we were talking to families.

After a few moments he spoke again. "How old are you Emily? If you don't mind me asking." I didn't even have to look up to see the sweet smile I knew he was sending her way, it was one he'd perfected over the years… though I didn't see it as often as I used to.

She hesitated a little before answering him. "I'm… I'm 22." I glanced at Sammy and resisted the urge to smirk. Well at least she wasn't jailbait. Hey, I saw the way he was checking her out earlier.

Silence settled over us again, although it seemed to be a more relaxed silence now that some degree of introductions had taken place. I spread out the photos across my side of the table, comparing the two scenes. Sam was right, if it wasn't for a few obvious differences in the appearance of the two men all the photos could have been of the same scene.

Something else struck me as odd, though it took a moment to work out what it was. The pools of blood around the victims looked untouched, no footprints, no signs of struggling. And no signs that anyone at all had approached them after they died. I frowned, looking up at Sam, who was reading the police reports. "Both were found by their wives, right?" He nodded his confirmation. "Then something is off" I said, pausing a moment, knowing that we had to be more delicate than usual in discussing a case when there was someone listening in. Sam sat the report down, leaning over to see what I was looking at. "Neither of them went near him" I said, pointing out the undisturbed pools of blood. He frowned, nodding slightly. It was unusual behaviour for a grieving family member. Usually they would run to them, hold them, try to save them, even when it was obviously that the person was beyond saving.

Sam opened his mouth to comment, but was interrupted, "You guys are talking about Bill and Mac, aren't you?"

Of course she had to know the victims. I sighed, I hated small towns.

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 **Hi everyone! Hope you like the latest chapter :) It would appear that reviews aren't showing up properly on stories at the moment, so feel free to PM me, I love your feedback!**


	7. Chapter 7: Research

I hesitated before answering, acknowledging the look Dean shot me with a slight nod. I know, tell her as little as possible. I wasn't going to treat her like an idiot though, so we'd have to tell her at least part of the truth.

I turned to give her my attention, "Yeah" I said gently, "We are. Did you know them?" Hopefully they weren't close family friends or something, maybe she just knew them from seeing them around town.

She shrugged a little, "Not really. Know Jen and Kathy more." I nodded, that was the wives. "They're friends of mums." That made sense, the two men were in their late forties, which would put them around the same age as her parents.

I hesitated again. She might be able to give us information to help us with the case, but Dean was giving me a very clear look. Don't get her involved.

Before I could decide she spoke again, "You cops or something?" She asked, eyes looking over us and the evidence boxes. "Or something" Dean replied gruffly. I knew he could see what I could, that spark of curiosity in her eyes that said she was not going to let us off with an easy answer. I resisted the urge to smirk as she raised her eyebrows at Dean, staring at him while she waited for a better answer with an intensity that was making him shift uncomfortably.

He sighed, "FBI" he finally answered her. She gave us a sceptical look, "You don't look like FBI." I smiled at her "Yeah, we get that a lot." "Don't believe everything you see on TV" Dean told her.

She didn't look totally convinced, "Can I see your badge?" "Sure" I smiled at her, and saw the corner of Dean's mouth twitch up. I shot him a bitch face, I knew where his mind was going. Straight down the gutter.

I thought for a moment, working out where I had put it, and remembered that it was still in the pocket of the clothes I had been wearing earlier. "One second" I told her with another smile, and ducked into the bathroom to grab it, and the rest of the contents of my pockets, out of the pile of clothes on the floor. I tucked my flick knife into my pocket and carried out my FBI ID and the notebook I'd used this afternoon when talking to the cops and wives.

"There you go" I handed her my ID and watched her examine it, turning it this way and that. I was glad it was a good fake, she was giving it a better look over than most cops bothered to do. Finally she handed it back with a shrug, "Ok then, Agent…Smith." She tilted her head, "Honestly, you don't look much like a Smith either" she said with a laugh, "But, whatever."

I laughed, "Yep, heard that too." I tucked the ID into my pocket and sat back down at the table. I glanced at my laptop, which I had running police reports on the corner of the table. I was surprised to notice that there was still no mention of two bodies being found in town. I could see how the guy in the laneway might go unnoticed for a bit. But It seemed very strange that no-one had seen the guy on the footpath.

Dean noticed my frown and sent me a questioning look. I nodded towards the laptop and shook my head slightly, telling him that there were no reports about the dead men, without the woman having to know. Real FBI agents didn't go leaving unexplained dead bodies for other people to find. Dean just shrugged, maybe we'd got lucky and the bodies wouldn't get found till tomorrow. I nodded.

"So it's true. They were murdered." She commented. "They didn't do it, if that's what you're thinking." She said, and it took me a moment to realise she was back to the photos we had been discussing. The fact that the wives hadn't gone near their dead husbands. Dean gave me a resigned look, clearly realising that she was not staying out of this conversation, whether he liked it or not. He finally turned to give her his attention. "And what makes you so sure of that?" He asked.

She frowned slightly, seeming to think about it before she answered. "They don't have it in them." She said, then explained, "They are both so…quiet. Timid, I guess you could call it. Hardly leave the house, either of them, unless they are shopping or getting their hair and nails done at the salon."

She seemed to realise she wasn't convincing either of us. The quiet ones were often the dangerous ones. Monsters were good at hiding their true personalities till it was too late. "Sure one of them might have…snapped" she frowned but continued "but both of them? Within days of each other?" I gave her a thoughtful look. People in the same area going nuts at the same time wasn't all that unusual when you factored in a little supernatural persuasion, but I was starting to think that she could be right about the wives, just for the wrong reasons.

"What about the husbands…Bill and Mac?" I asked, "What can you tell us about them?"

"Like I said, I didn't know them that well, but I know mum didn't like them." She frowned, looking to the ceiling, I suspected fighting the urge to not speak badly of the dead. I waited patiently. "She said they drank too much. Said that that they did bad things. Told me…told me to stay away from them." I closed my eyes for a moment, pretty sure I knew what these two men had in common that had gotten them killed.

I heard Dean swear quietly and knew he knew what I was thinking. "They hang out with any other guys you should stay away from?" Dean asked her quietly. Should we be expecting any more bodies? It would at least make it easier to know where to look next if there was another target.

"Um, yeah. Joe. Joe Taz." She looked at me again. "Joe got a wife?" I asked her. She looked a little confused, "No, why?" I frowned, "Doesn't quite fit the profile…" I looked at Dean, who shrugged, "Best lead we have so far." I nodded, "Ok, I'll look into him."

I shifted the paperwork to make room in front of me for the laptop. Dean picked them up and shuffled through them, "Check these two for criminal records while you are there." I nodded, I guess the local police hadn't felt the need to include that information in their reports when they were looking at them only as victims.

While he waited he restacked the photos and files that we had both looked through and pulled out the evidence bags. Examining them one by one for anything useful. There wasn't much there, mostly just the clothes they had been wearing and contents of their pockets.

We were both working in silence, and I noticed that Emily had gone quiet too. I glanced over at the bed and saw that her eyes had closed. It was after 10 at night, and even considering the fact that she'd been unconscious for a while I was surprised that exhaustion hadn't won out sooner.

I smiled as I watched her face relax and her breathing even out in sleep. Dean cleared his throat and I turned my attention back to him, pointedly ignoring the teasing look in his eyes. I kept my voice low as I told him what I'd found. "17 years ago all three of them were accused of assault, but the case was closed before it went to court."

"It say why?" Dean asked. I scrolled through the file. "Looks like the victim disappeared." I told him. He raised an eyebrow, "and no one thought that strange?" I shrugged, "According to the notes they had their suspicions… but were never able to prove anything. The case went cold."

He grunted, and I knew what he meant. Sometimes humans were just as bad as the monsters we hunted. "So it say who the victim was?" I nodded, scrolling back to the top. "Huh." My eyebrows went up in surprise. "What?" "The, uh, victim. One Janai Taz."

"Relation?" He asked, and I nodded, "You could say that. She was his wife." I glanced at Emily, "Guess she didn't know. She'd only have been a kid when it happened."

He studied her for a moment, then nodded, "So, maybe we're looking at a vengeful spirit, not a witch." I nodded, then sighed, "Of course if she is dead, her body was never found, which is going to make salting and burning a challenge."

"Guess we're having a little chat with Joe tomorrow." I got the feeling he would like to do more than chat. And I couldn't exactly blame him. If we were right these guys had gotten away with murder, and our job had apparently become saving his life. I sighed, rubbing my hand over my eyes. This job got complicated sometimes.

I switched my search to unidentified remains found around the time of the disappearance, on the off chance she had been found but not identified.

"Well I'll be damned" I looked up to see what Dean had found. He passed me one of the evidence bags, and I stared at the contents in surprise, "Is that…?" "I think so." In my hand was a rather large, ornate, antique key.


	8. Chapter 8: Witches

We both examined the key, looking for any sort of clue as to its purpose. It was a good bet that this was what the demons had been looking for. The timing certainly fit, they had attacked us just hours after we had collected the boxes from the police station.

Of course that just raised even more questions. What did the key open? Where had it come from? How had it come to be in the pocket of the dead man? What did the demons want with it? And how had they know we had it?

I sighed, why could we never find a simple case? Somehow everything always ended up…complicated.

Sam was currently looking at the key with a magnifying glass. He was looking through the plastic of the evidence bag. Till we knew more we were not taking any chances. We'd come across enough cursed objects to be cautious, especially if demons had an interest in this thing.

"Where exactly was it found?" Sam asked me, putting down the magnifying glass. I shuffled through the paperwork scattered around the table till I found the inventory list. "It was in the inside jacket pocket of Bill Kare. The first victim." I told him. "So he had it on him before he was attacked." He said. I nodded, it would appear so.

"You recognise any of the markings?" I asked. He frowned, rotating the key to look at it from another angle. "I'm not sure. I don't immediately recognise anything, but there looks to be some sort of symbol worked into the design." He flipped over a sheet of paper and began to sketch the symbol he was examining.

When he finished he pushed the paper over to me to look at. I studied it for a minute, then shook my head "I don't recognise it." I told him. "It does look kind of occult though. Maybe we are looking at witches after all?"

Sam shrugged, grabbing the paper and sitting it next to his computer before starting to type again, no doubt trying to find a match. "I'm not sure what we are looking at anymore." He finally answered. "Can't find any remains matching our missing woman," he informed me, "so if we are looking at vengeful spirit we are going to have a challenge on our hands." I nodded. "And what is the story with the key? If we're dealing with a witch it could be a cursed object. But then why was it found with the first victim, and not the second?" He picked up the inventory list I had dropped back onto the table, "Nothing similar found with the other man?" I shook my head, "Nope, the other guy didn't have anything in his pockets when he was found."

"What if we are looking at it wrong?" Sam suggested. I frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Well," he answered, "we already suspect that all three men are involved in the disappearance of Janai, right?" I nodded, not seeing where he was going with this. "Ok, so what if they were attacked by someone in the occult community, who found out about them through the occult community." I frowned, taking a moment to work out what he was trying to suggest, "Hang on, so you're thinking that these three guys ARE witches?" I considered it. Despite the common perception of witches as female, it wouldn't be the first time we had come across male witches.

"A coven in the area would help explain the presence of the demons" I said, warming to the idea. Though it still didn't explain why they hadn't taken the key before we got to it if they had known he had it.

Sam nodded, still tapping away at the computer. I decided I wasn't going to get anything more from the police file and packed it back into the boxes, leaving out the key and the crime scene photos. Then I went over to my duffel and pulled out dad's journal and the books on witches we had brought, as that was our initial suspicion. It was going to be a late night, but we couldn't afford to spend too long in this town. I grabbed out a couple of beers on the way back to the table.

"No police bulletins?" I asked Sam as I sat back down, passing a beer to him. Sam pressed a couple of keys and shook his head with a frown, "No, and I don't understand how. We left that guy in the middle of a public footpath." I opened my mouth to comment, but he cut me off, "I know, cleaning up the evidence would have taken more time than she had. Doesn't mean I have to like leaving a body for others to find."

I nodded with a sigh, "Yeah, I know. We can't afford the wrong kind of attention, not when we have a case to work." We both went back to working in silence.

I flipped through page after page, looking for a clue till the words started to blur. I rubbed a hand across my eyes and drank the last of my beer. I glanced up at Sam, smiling a little at his look of focused concentration, he had always been the research fan.

He seemed to feel me watching him, because he glanced up and returned the smile. It was strangely comfortable sitting here researching together again. "You find something?" He asked. I shook my head, it was always hard to find something when you didn't know exactly what it was you were looking for. "You?" I asked. "Um, actually, maybe. It's a spell that could be the same kind used to kill these guys." He made a few notes on the paper in front of him. "The ingredients could help us identify the person who's casting it."

"Good work" I said, leaning over to see the ingredients he was writing down. "Dog bones, blood of the witch, DNA of the victim, and" I frowned, trying to read the fourth ingredient, "Acorus calamus?"

Sam nodded, "It's a herb. Not the kind you're likely to find at the supermarket though." He looked thoughtful, "Possibly an alternative health food shop." "They have one of those here?" I asked, and he nodded, "Ok then, first thing tomorrow we pay them a visit."

Sam nodded again, this time trying to cover a yawn as he did so. I glanced at the clock. It was after midnight. "Right now though, it's time you got some rest." He glared at me, "And you" he retorted.

I rolled my eyes, "I'm fine, you're the one yawning." He glared at me, "Well I'm not going for a rest unless you do." We both just glared at each other. Finally I gave in with a huff, "How old are you, twelve?" I asked, but I stood up and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" He asked, sounding like he expected an argument. "To get my bedroll" I informed him, indicating the sleeping woman on the second bed, "I think we're a little big to share a single bed at this point."

I could almost feel him rolling his eyes at me, "Bitch." I heard him huff, "Jerk." I smiled, and by the time I had returned with the bed roll he had laid down on the bed.

He didn't close his eyes till I had switched of the light and settled myself on the floor between the beds, but it didn't take long for his breathing to even out in sleep. "Night" I said quietly, letting my own eyes fall closed.

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 **Hi everyone! You may notice I have changed the summary of this story, as it has taken itself in a different direction to the one I initially planned (as stories seem to do!). Hope you are all enjoying the story so far!**


	9. Chapter 9: Trust

I woke up a little less disoriented the second time around. It probably helped that there wasn't a near stranger laughing at me this time. In fact the room was totally silent apart from the sounds of rhythmic breathing.

I opened my eyes and looked around, seeing one of the men asleep on the bed beside mine. His name was Sam, I remembered. He looked almost peaceful, laying on his stomach with one hand curled under the pillow and the other dangling over the side of the bed. Even in sleep though there was a tension to him, like it would take just the slightest disturbance for him to be totally alert again.

My eyes followed his arm down towards the floor. Wincing at the movement I shifted onto my side a little. Dean was asleep on his back between the beds on what looked to be a camping mat. He looked less relaxed than Sam, a man who had seen too much to relax again, always alert, even in sleep. Like Sam he had one hand under the pillow, arm curled behind him at a somewhat uncomfortable looking angle. I wondered if there was a weapon under there. I wouldn't put it past him. His other hand was out to the side, Sam's hand resting against it.

I looked between the two men, a slightly confused smile on my face. I just didn't know what to make of them. There was clearly a close bond between them. More than most brothers. I wondered briefly if they even were brothers, I didn't believe most of what they had told me about themselves. There was a sort of similarity to them though, and I figured they had no need to lie to me about it.

I didn't believe they were FBI, and I was almost certain their last name wasn't Smith. And yet, I found myself trusting them. I could blame them for getting me into this mess. But then I apparently also had them to thank for saving my life.

I was intensely curious about who they really were, and what they were really doing here. Clearly it had something to do with the deaths in town, but these two were not cops. I had heard things last night that I knew they didn't mean for me to hear. I had always been good at pretending to be asleep, and I wasn't stupid. I could tell they weren't going to say any more than they had too whilst they knew I was listening.

I'm not sure what I had expected to hear, but it wasn't talk of witches, spirits demons and spells. They had been totally serious too. I supposed they could both be mad, but I didn't believe it.

I had picked up something else too. They were here to help. I don't know why they were bothering with two murders in a middle of nowhere town, but if what I had heard was true, then the local police were in way over their heads, and they were here to capture the murderer.

I wondered what they were going to do with me. Dean had explained yesterday that the hospital was too far, that was why he'd stitched me up here. I still had to fight the urge to shudder at the thought that he had stitched my wound in here rather than a sterile hospital room. I couldn't deny that he'd done a good job though, the stitches looked professional. I wondered how he'd learnt that.

Still, I was now stuck in this cabin at their mercy. I tried to sit up, slowly this time, not like yesterday, but had to stop before I'd barely lifted off the bed. Getting stabbed sucked.

Maybe they'd take me to the hospital today, though I had picked up pretty clearly that they wanted this case, that's what they'd called it, sorted out quickly. Maybe they could just drop me back home, my housemate could take me to get checked.

I gasped, she must be worried sick. As far as she knew I had stormed out yesterday, over an argument that suddenly seemed trivial, and just never come back. Felt my pockets looking for my phone, at least I could send her a message, let her know I was ok. They were empty. I'd left my damn phone at home in my rush.

I groaned in frustration, then went silent when I heard a noise outside the cabin. It sounded like a car door closing. Then I heard the voice.

"Come on out boys! I know you're in there." I didn't recognise the voice, but I could hear the cold malice in it, and my heart rate shot up in fear.

Dean and Sam were both awake and alert in an instant, and I couldn't help but smile just a little at the confirmation of my suspicion. They also had weapons in hand, Dean holding a gun and Sam a knife. They didn't say a word, just exchanged a glance, and yet that seemed to be all they needed to come to an agreement on what to do next.

Dean looked at me and held a finger over his mouth, stay quiet. I nodded, eyes wide and then watched as they both rose off their beds and moved silently across the room, weapons in hand.

Dean went to the window a peered out cautiously, while Sam went to his duffel and grabbed out…was that spray paint? What were they doing?

The voice came again, and this time I realised it was that of a woman. "Come on boys. Don't keep me waiting. I'd hate for this fabulous bit of machine out here to get damaged because you were too slow." I don't know what she did then, I couldn't see outside from my position, but I saw Dean go stiff with rage. He looked over at Sam, who was spraying a pattern onto the floor with practiced efficiency. Sam made a few more marks, scuffed his foot across the bottom of the door, disturbing a line of something that I hadn't noticed before, and then nodded at Dean.

Dean nodded back, and then called out from beside the window to the woman outside, "You want us? Why don't you come in and get us?" The sound of a gunshot rang out and the window beside him shattered. I covered my mouth with my hands to hold in a scream.

He hardly flinched, just taunted her, "That all you've got? Come on, you know it takes more than that to scare us." Maybe he was crazy after all.

I heard a screech of frustration and then the front door was flung off its hinges and into the room. This time I couldn't totally supress the scream of terror. Her eyes locked onto me, she gave a sadistic grin, and then her eyes went black.

"Oh my god" I gasped. What the hell had I gotten caught up in. "Don't think God gives a damn." The woman sneered at me, raising her hand menacingly. I flinched, but nothing happened. She looked more surprised by that than me, then looked down at the paint on the floor she was standing in and let out another screech of frustration.

This time it was Sam who spoke, "Can't believe you fell for that one so easily. What is it with the demons in this town? You the academy rejects or something?"

"Just following orders." She snapped, "Not my fault if the boss is an idiot. I warned him not to mess with you two."

Sam frowned, sharing a glance with Dean that I couldn't read. "Crowley in a snit with us again?" Dean asked.

The woman laughed, "Crowley? You boys have no idea what's going on here do you?" She grinned at the boys confused expressions, "Well I'm not going to be the one to ruin the surprise for you."

Dean tucked his gun into his jeans and picked up a knife, "We can make you talk, you know." He had a look in his eye that said he meant what he said and I shivered in fear, even though I was not the one being threatened. Sam looked at me, then at Dean, giving him a warning look.

The woman saw it too, and grinned again. "Maybe. If you didn't have an audience, that is." She nodded in my direction, "You want to give her nightmares for the rest of her life, go ahead. I'd be happy to help with that." Her eyes flashed black again. "But I'm not giving you any information."

Dean growled in frustration. Then thrust the knife into her heart.

The woman screamed, and so did I, unable to look away as the woman seemed to spark and flash before collapsing to the floor. Dead. Dean still held the knife, breathing deeply as he watched the pool of blood grow around her.

Sam, however, was at my side. He was speaking, but I couldn't hear the words through the ringing in my ears. I was sitting up against the headboard, though I didn't remember moving, the pain in my side fighting with the shock of what I had just witnessed. Both contributing to the stars flashing across my vision.

Dean had gone to the bathroom, I supposed to wash the blood from his hands, but I couldn't take my eyes of the body. Then Sam was in front of me, sitting on the bed, hands on my shoulders, his body blocking my view, forcing me to focus on his words.

"It's ok. You're ok. Just breathe. Nice and steady. In. Out." When I still didn't respond he picked up one of my hands and held it against his chest, over his heart. Letting me feel the steady, calm rhythm. Part of me wondered if I should be worried that he could be so calm after watching someone die. But the rhythm, combined with his continued stream of calm words, started to soothe me. My vision began to clear again as I slowed my breathing to match his, and the ringing of my ears faded.

"I guess we are going to have to have that talk after all." Dean had returned, and he sounded, almost sad. He pulled a chair over to sit next to the bed waiting for me to pull myself together a little before starting to talk.

I closed my eyes for a moment, thinking that maybe I didn't actually want to know. Then I opened them again, brushing away tears that I hadn't noticed till now, and looked at Sam, then Dean.

"What was that?" I asked quietly, moving my hand from Sam's chest, but letting him gently hold my hands in his large ones.

"That was a demon." Dean informed me, matter of factly. I nodded vaguely as I processed the idea. "Demons…demons exist." I said, trying to come to terms with it. Dean just nodded.

"What else?" I asked, and when they didn't respond added, "What else is real? Monsters? Ghosts? Magic?" I was also trying to process what I'd heard last night in view of this new knowledge.

Sam nodded, "Yes." He said quietly. I looked at him for a moment, and then broke down in tears.

* * *

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	10. Chapter 10: Help

I watched as Sam wrapped his arms comfortingly around the sobbing woman. She was holding onto him like he was the only thing keeping her from falling completely to pieces, looking very small wrapped in Sam's large frame.

I sighed, most people struggled the first time they learnt that there really were monsters in this world. Some took it worse than others. I guess after the couple of days she'd just had I shouldn't be surprised that it had all become too much. She had been threatened, stabbed, and now seen a demon die right in front of her. I wished the demon had at least picked a male meat-suit, call it sexist, but most people reacted worse to seeing a woman killed than a man.

Still, I believed that I had done the best thing under the circumstances. The damn thing had been right, I wasn't going to torture it in front of a civilian, and I knew from plenty of experience that it was the only way to get anything useful out of them. I supposed I could have done the actual kill elsewhere, but having to move it out of the devils trap would have increased the risk to all of them. Better to get it over with quickly.

I left Sam to continue comforting Emily and got to work removing the body. I carried it outside, leaving it on the ground a little way into the woods. We were far enough out of town that the wild animals would get rid of most of the evidence for us. I didn't need to worry about it too much, if all went to plan we wouldn't even be coming back here again, especially now that they knew we were here, and we would be well away before any of the local police decided to poke around. If they even did. I would have to check the police reports when I finished cleaning up, it was only early, but someone had to have found the bodies in town by now.

I pulled a shovel out of the trunk on the way back, using it to cover the blood on the floor with a layer of dirt.

I looked over at Sam, who had shifted so that he could watch me. Emily had gone quiet again. "How is she?" I asked quietly. Sam gave me a grimace that said she wasn't great, but what else did I expect. I just nodded, then gestured towards his laptop, can I use that? He nodded.

I opened it and turned it on, packing away the rest of the mess on the table as it fired up, then sat down. I was about to pull up the police bulletins for the area when a phone started ringing. It was one of mine. I picked it up out of my duffel where I had tossed it yesterday, checked which one it was and then answered with "Agent Smith." I could see Sam's body tense slightly as he listened.

I immediately recognised the voice on the end of the line as one of the local officers, though I couldn't remember his name. "Agent Smith, we, uh, we got another body." He told me. "Different MO, but, I, uh, thought you'd want to know. It's, ah, it's nasty."

I grimaced at Sam, but kept my tone even as I replied, "Thankyou for that, you were right to call. Where was the body found? And what appears to be the cause of death?"

I listened closely as he started to read me the details, grabbing a sheet of paper and a pen to make notes, and trying to keep him from hearing my surprise. "Demons?" Sam mouthed at me, and I shook my head. This was not about the two guys from yesterday. Our case just got complicated, again.

"Ok, thankyou officer. We will be there shortly." I hung up the phone and rubbed a hand over my face before closing the laptop and grabbing our gear. I spoke to Sam as I shoved things back into the duffels. "Don't ask me what happened to the two demons, maybe they cleaned up after themselves." I shrugged. "There was another death in town last night."

Sam slowly moved Emily so that she was propped up against the headboard, saying something I couldn't hear and waiting for her to nod before coming to help me pack. "Joe?" He asked, and I shook my head, causing his brow to furrow in confusion.

"No, it was a woman, Sarah Gaila. And she wasn't killed the same way either." He paused for a moment, "Are we sure it's linked to our case, not just a weird coincidence?" I raised an eyebrow at him and he nodded, we didn't believe in coincidences.

"No, I'm sure it's somehow connected to our case. She was, ah," I looked over at Emily and lowered my voice, "Police said it looks like she was blown apart, but they can't find any traces of explosives to explain how."

Sam grimaced again, "So, suits?" He asked, picking up his duffel and heading for the car. I nodded and he headed outside.

I looked at Emily. I didn't really want to have to include her any further, but she might be able to tell me how Sarah fit into this whole mess. Help us figure out who was doing this before any more people had to die. I sighed, sat my packed duffel next to the door, then walked over to the bed.

I crouched down next to her, moving slowly so I didn't startle her. "Hey kid" I said softly, "I am so sorry you had to get caught up in all this." She looked at me with red rimmed eyes, but gave me a faint trace of a smile as she nodded slightly. "You want to know about Sarah." She stated quietly, and I nodded. "You are here to catch the person doing this?" She asked, and I nodded again. "We want to stop them from hurting anyone else." I told her.

She nodded again. "I…I don't know much about her. She…arrived in town, maybe, a couple of months back?" I nodded, encouraging her to continue. "Keeps to herself mostly. I see her around town occasionally, but she doesn't really join in with anything. People think she's strange. Doesn't like to buy regular things, buys food at the health food shop, or grows it herself." I worked to keep my face neutral, Sam had said that the herb for the spell had most likely been bought at the health food shop.

"Did she have anything to do with Bill or Mac?" I asked, and she frowned. "They…I heard she got into an argument with them down the street one day, them and Joe…about two weeks back." Right before the murders had started. "I don't know what it was about. I wasn't there. I just heard it got real heated. Nasty."

I smiled at her gently, "Ok, thankyou."

I heard Sam come back inside, and stood up, resting a hand on her shoulder for a moment before going to grab my suit off him. He gave me a curious look and I relayed the information. "Another witch?" He asked, sounding surprised. I shrugged, "Soon as we check out the body we go and talk to this Joe guy."

He nodded and headed into the bathroom to get ready. I sat my suit on the back of a chair and took the rest of the gear out to the car while I waited for my turn in the bathroom.

That done I sat down, looking at Emily, trying to work out what we were going to do about her. We couldn't just leave her here, but I didn't want to lose a couple of hours driving her to the hospital before dealing with this case.

Somehow she seemed to guess what I was thinking, because she spoke up quietly, "Just drop me off at my place." I raised an eyebrow and she continued, "My housemate can drive me to the hospital to get checked over."

I nodded a little, it would let us get on with things. "What are you going to tell them?" I asked, "You won't be able to tell them about us, and trust me, you don't want to go telling people you saw a demon." They'd toss her into mental health. We'd seen it before.

"Nothing." She finally replied, and I raised an eyebrow. "I walked out of my house yesterday…and" She sighed, "and blacked out. I don't remember anything except waking up again on my front porch with stitches in my side." She looked at me seriously, "I'd rather just pretend that none of this ever happened." I smiled sadly, then nodded, "Ok."

I realised that she was still in her jeans and bra. I didn't want to leave her on a doorstep with no shirt, the idea of just abandoning her on a doorstep at all was bad enough. I unzipped my duffel and riffled around for a decent T-shirt.

It was way too big, but at least she was covered. She gave me a grateful smile.

Sam finally stepped out of the bathroom, ready to be FBI. I took my turn, coming out several minutes later clean and tidy and dressed in my suit. I wasn't a fan of the thing, but it certainly made a difference when dealing with police. We hadn't been wearing them yesterday as we'd gone past the police station straight away, but you got a bit of attire leeway when people knew you'd been traveling to get here.

Sam had packed the last of the gear into the car while I was getting ready. "We need to find a laundromat after we're done with this" I told him, holding up the bag of dirty clothes I had collected from the bathroom floor.

He nodded, then swore, "What?" I asked. "I threw the blanket from the back of the car in the wash last night and forgot about it." He told me. I shrugged, grabbed one of the bed and tossed it at him. "Fixed." Well, it was most likely how we had come to own the other one in the first place. He rolled his eyes at me, but took it out to the car.

Once everything was ready to go we carefully carried Emily out and helped her into the backseat. Now that the shock of this morning was wearing off the pain was back with a vengeance, but there was nothing we could do except give her a couple more pain pills and be as gentle as possible. She'd be able to get some good stuff once her friend got her to the hospital.

We drove into town, laying her down on her front porch, ringing the doorbell, and waiting to see that it was opened before we drove away.


	11. Chapter 11: Joe

Once we had dropped Emily off for her housemate to care for we headed for the latest crime scene. Dean was quiet, thoughts unreadable as he drove.

After a few moments I broke the silence, knowing we would be at the address in minutes. "Ok, so we are working on the theory that all the victims so far have been witches…killed by a witch, or witches. You don't think Rowena's involved, do you?" Dean just shrugged, so I continued pondering out loud. "But why the different MO on the latest victim? The first two were killed without a mark, and then this one. Blown apart they said?"

"Yeah," Dean replied, "And she doesn't fit the profile of the others either. Female, for starters. But she's also apparently new in town."

I nodded, most killers, and seemingly especially those of the monster variety, had a type when it came to victims. "Emily said that she got into a pretty heated argument with the three men just before this started, right?" Dean nodded in confirmation, "What if we are looking at a fight between two separate covens? The three guys who have lived here for years, and then a new coven trying to move into their turf? Did Emily say if there were any other people who moved into town around the same time?"

"No, but then I didn't ask. We can check with the cops, they ought to know." I nodded, "If there are two covens involved we really need to work out who's in them fast, before any more bodies turn up."

Dean looked thoughtful for a moment as he pulled up to the curb behind a police car. "But do we?" He asked, and I looked at him in confusion. "I mean, we came here to take out a witch, now it looks like they are taking each other out for us. Why not just sit back and let 'em at it?"

I frowned at him, "Because if we do it we'll keep innocent people out of the crossfire, you know they're not going to care about that if this escalates. Plus they are using demons for their powers, and they've already dragged Emily into things."

He sighed, and nodded his agreement. "I hate demons." He muttered. "And I wish I knew what the hell they wanted with that key."

I nodded, then opened my door to get out. "You talk to the cops, I'll go search the house for anything that can help confirm our theory and tell us who killed her."

We walked towards the front of the house, ducking under the crime scene tape and approaching the two cops standing at the door.

The older of the two nodded at us, "Agent's, thanks for coming. We're still waiting on the ME and crime scene techs." We nodded, they'd be coming from the town over, "You're welcome to go in and look around though, nothing's been touched. She's in the lounge. It's…ah, it's pretty bad though."

"Thanks Officer. Don't worry, we've seen plenty of ugly crime scenes" He assured the two men as we moved into the house.

He wasn't wrong, we'd both seen way too many bodies torn apart, but still, it wasn't something anyone looked forward to seeing.

The smell hit us first, the unmistakable odour of death, and I scrunched up my face. Then we found the body…what was left of it. "Interesting choice of décor." Dean commented, and I grimaced at him. There was blood and…bits…everywhere. It coated the walls, the floor, the roof. I could see why a bomb would be their first thought, though there were no burn marks and nothing else in the room appeared to have been disturbed.

"I'll see if there were any witnesses." Dean said, heading back to the front door, "Find out who found her, and ask about other people new to town." I nodded, pulling on a pair of latex gloves before beginning to carefully search the house for any signs of witch craft. I should probably check the lounge room for a hex bag, but honestly, I didn't want to step in there, and 'FBI' or not, we'd probably get chewed out if we obviously disturbed a crime scene.

I started with the kitchen, and quickly found a lot of jars of ingredients that indicated that she either had very strange tastes in food…or she was cooking up spells. I saw that there was a basement door leading off the kitchen and headed in that direction, it seemed to be a favourite spell casting location among witches.

The door was locked, but it didn't take me long to pick it and carefully open the door. There was a staircase leading down into the dark. I flicked on the light and cautiously descended the stairs.

I did a quick circuit of the room. If you didn't know what to look for you would miss the signs. The traces of chalk lines on the concrete floor, the small burn marks, the lingering smell of herbs and other, less savoury things. I was sure, someone had been doing spells in here. And it was a good bet it was the woman splattered upstairs.

I continued my search of the house, looking for clues as to whether she was working alone or as part of a coven, and also clues as to who had killed her.

I found an old, leather bound spell book in the bedroom, but no indication that she was working with others.

Dean confirmed my suspicion when he came back inside to tell me that no-one else had moved into town recently.

"So who found the body?" I asked. "They don't know." He replied "It was called in anonymously. No witnessed either."

I frowned, "You think the killer called it in? Wanted her to be found perhaps?" He shrugged, "Kinda looks that way. Don't know why."

We heard vehicles pulling up out front and the noise of car doors and people calling instructions. The crime scene techs had arrived, "I think that's our cue to leave." I commented.

Dean nodded, "I think it's time we paid Joe a visit."

We nodded to the crime scene techs as they passed us on our way inside, and told the cops to let us know if they found anything interesting. Then we got back into the Impala and headed for the address I'd found for Joe.

"So how are we going to play this?" I asked Dean. "Well, I'm thinking that Joe is more than likely involved in Sarah's death." He replied.

I nodded, "But we need to be sure before we take him out."

"I know." He replied. "We're FBI coming to ask him a few questions, hoping he can help us identify who killed his friends." I nodded, "Ok, sure." "But we're going in armed. Soon as we confirm it's him, we take him out." He added, and I nodded again.

We pulled up around the corner from the house and went round to the trunk. We loaded our guns with witch killing bullets and tucked them in under our suit jackets. Dean had the demon killing knife and I had a flask of holy water, we already knew there were demons around, and they appeared to be linked to the witches.

Once armed we got back in the car and drove around the corner to park in front of Joe's house.

We walked up to the door and Dean knocked. "What?" Came the cranky call from inside. I raised an eyebrow at Dean before calling back, "Joe Taz? It's the FBI. We just wanted to ask you a few questions."

The door was flung open to reveal a short, cranky looking man in wrinkled clothes. "What the hell do the FBI want to talk to me about." He snapped.

"We were hoping to ask you a few questions about Bill and Mac. We are investigating the murders, and we hear that they were friends of yours." Dean told him.

Joe grunted, "Fine. Suppose you want to come in?" He didn't sound happy about it, but he moved into the house, allowing us to follow. I looked at Dean, who shrugged and entered the house. I followed, scanning the house as he led us down the hall to a messy lounge room.

He seemed to notice us scanning the mess, "Stupid woman who cleans the house has been…unavailable for a couple of days." He glared at us, looking as though he thought we were somehow to blame for that.

I wasn't sure what exactly it was about him, but I was getting a bad feeling. Dean seemed to feel the same, as I saw his hand shift subtly closer to his gun.

I cleared my throat. "So, ah, Mr Taz," I started, and he snorted, "Mr Taz" he said mockingly, "It's Joe. Got it?"

I frowned slightly, but nodded, "Ok, Joe, you were friends with the two men who died?" He gave a short nod of confirmation. "Did you notice anything out of the ordinary in the last couple of weeks?"

He rolled his eyes at me, "No. They were fine…until they were god-damn murdered!"

I looked at Dean, this was not getting us anywhere. "What about Sarah?" Dean asked him, "Did you know her?"

Joe's expression darkened, "Know her? Yeah I knew her. Stupid bloody witch couldn't keep out of our business." He spat the words out with such anger that I could easily imagine him killing her. That and he had actually referred to her as a witch. I knew a lot of people used it as an insult, but there was something in the way he said it which said to me that he was not one of them.

Dean and I glanced at each other, exchanging a slight nod, take him out. "Don't even think about going for that gun. Dean." Dean froze as Joe's attitude changed in an instant, his voice now controlled, almost cocky. "Let's stop playing here. You know what I am. And I know what you are." While he was focused on Dean I moved for my own gun. He clicked his fingers and I went flying across the room. Slammed into the wall by the demon who appeared in the room, black eyes flashing. "Sam!" I heard Dean shout as I struggled to breath against the force holding me to the wall.

"Now, now. Don't make me restrain you too." Joe commented calmly. I could see Dean fighting to stay calm, work out how to regain control of the situation. All I could do was focus on forcing air into my lungs as I watched on helplessly.

"Sam and Dean Winchester. Never expected to see you pair out in my little backwater. Then again I wasn't expecting some stupid woman to come in a mess everything up either." His eyes flashed cold fury, then he gave a sadistic smile, "Oh, well, at least she won't be bothering me anymore."

"Suppose she did me a favour really. Now I don't have to share with those two dimwits anymore. Although of course he had to have the key on him when he went and died. Thought he could use it as leverage." He sighed, "Then you two had to come along and take it from the police station before I could get it back. And this lot were too stupid to get it for me." He glared at the demon for a moment, and I wondered in confusion why he was the one giving orders to demons. If he was using demons for his powers, he should be the one answering to them. And usually it was only one demon involved in the deal.

"But now you're here, so you can just give it to me personally." He held his hand out towards Dean, who didn't move. "Now, Dean" He said, starting to sound irritated. "I bet you don't even know what it does do you?" Dean just looked at him stubbornly.

"Fine," he snapped, "If that's how you want to be." He glanced over at me, an evil glint in his eye, "Say goodbye to Sam, then."

I felt the pressure on my chest increase, crushing the air out of my lungs. I grabbed at my chest, despite knowing that I could do nothing against the invisible force. "Sam!" I heard Dean shouting.

Suddenly I remembered the holy water I had tucked into my pocket. I struggled to get it out as my vision started to darken from lack of oxygen. Finally I got it out and managed to pull off the top before throwing it at the demon.

I heard him howl in pain, and the pressure eased for a moment. Just enough for one breath in, before crushing back down again with even more force.

Pain shot through me as the pressure began to crack ribs. "Sammy!" I heard Dean continuing to shout as I fell into unconsciousness.


	12. Chapter 12: Escape

"Say goodbye to Sam, then." The words registered in an instant and I turned to see Sam, still pressed into the wall, but now turning red as he fought to draw in air.

No! "Sam!" I made to move towards him, but Joe muttered something and found my feet fixed to the floor. I forced my attention back to the witch. I had to kill him if I was going to save Sammy.

"Let him go." I said, my voice tight with fury. He just looked at me, unfazed, "Give me the key."

I glanced at Sam, seeing him clutching at his chest with one hand, his lips starting to turn blue. Shit. "Ok!" I held my hands up in surrender, then slowly pulled the key out of my pocket, "Here. Have your damn key." I tossed it to him.

He pulled the key out of the evidence bag, and rewarded me with a smile that sent my blood cold. "Finish him."

"No!" I fought the invisible bonds holding me to the floor. I knew I had no chance of getting to my gun with him watching me closely, seeming to enjoy watching me suffer as the Demon crushed Sam into the wall.

Then the demon howled, and I realised that despite being unable to breathe, Sam had managed to throw holy water at it. It wasn't enough though, and despite the things hold loosening enough for him to grab one desperate breath, it recovered in seconds, the pressure redoubling.

I flinched as I heard the sickening crack of bone, "Sammy!" His face went white and I knew the pain had to be excruciating.

It took all my self-control to tear my gaze away. To focus on the man causing his suffering.

I realised that he was no longer looking at me, unable to resist watching Sam's pain. I had my gun out in an instant, aiming for his heart.

He realised his mistake the second before I fired, shouting an incantation that caused my arm to push downwards. He wasn't quick enough though, and the bullet still struck him in the thigh.

He grimaced in pain, then looked at me cockily. I was now standing with my arms pinned to my sides, gun pointing to the floor. "Did you really think you could get me that easily?" He asked smirking, "I'm too strong to kill with a bullet anyway. Might hurt, but it won't kill me."

This time I smirked back, "That there is no ordinary bullet. It's filled with a little special something just for you." I was trying to hide my concern though as nothing was happening. When we'd used the spell last time the effect had been much quicker…but then we'd also used a lot more of the potion.

Then his eyes widened in shock as he realised that something was very wrong. He screamed and then collapsed into a smoking pile of blood and clothing.

I grimaced, it was not a pretty sight. Then immediately turned my attention back to Sam.

"Sam! Sammy!" He had collapsed to the floor, face deathly pale. I fell to my knees beside him, moving him ever so gently onto his back. Aware that a fractured rib could puncture his lung if I wasn't careful…aware that it could have done so already.

I felt a wave of relief as I saw his chest rising with shallow breaths.

I heard a noise and spun around, realising that the demon was still standing there. I stood, demon knife in hand, between it and Sam. I wasn't sure why he had let Sam go. "You going to finish us off for him?" I asked, voice harsh with emotion.

The demon chuckled, "No. I for one don't have a death wish. I wanted to thank you."

I stared at him in confusion, still keeping a solid grip on the knife. "You what?"

"You just freed me from having to do the bidding of…him" His mouth curled in disgust. "He found a way to bind us." He explained at my continued look of confusion.

"Well, that explains the three of you we've killed since we got here." He nodded.

"Oh, by the way," He commented as he turned to walk away, "The key? Opens that door over there." He indicated to a door on the opposite wall, "I'd use it if I were you, unless you want another body on your hands." And with that cryptic statement he was gone.

I crouched back down next to Sam, tucking the knife away before pulling out my phone and dialling 911. "It's ok Sammy, we're going to get you patched up and good as new in no time" I told him soothingly, getting no response.

I told the operator the address and to hurry, then hung up. I looked over at the door, then at Sam. There was nothing I could do for him till the ambulance got here, so I stood, keeping an eye on him from the corner of my eye as I crossed to where the key had fallen when Joe had gone up in smoke.

I picked it up cautiously, he'd handled it, but that still didn't necessarily mean it was safe. Nothing happened, so I walked to the door.

Still keeping part of my attention on Sammy, I examined the door. There was a keyhole, but it didn't look like it would fit the key in my hand.

I shrugged, and tried it anyway. The key seemed to melt into the right shape as I moved it into the keyhole. Ok, so definitely magic involved, but apparently not a cursed object.

I pulled the knife back out, not knowing what to expect on the other side, and then turned the key.

The lock clicked quietly and the door swung inwards. I pushed it open, knife at the ready, and stared.

The room appeared to be a cell of sorts. A low bunk against the back wall, toilet and sink to one side and a desk and chair to the other. And in the middle was a woman collapsed on the floor. She was painfully thin, with limp brown hair and wearing clothes that were little better than rags. Her eyes were open and staring at me fearfully.

I tucked the knife away and approached her slowly, "Hey there." I said gently. She flinched away. "It's ok, I'm not going to hurt you." I crouched down beside her. It was hard to tell her age, it looked like she'd had a hard life, but I guessed she would have been a similar age to Joe. "I'm Dean." I told her, "What's your name?"

She looked at me fearfully for a few more moments, then whispered, "Janai."

My eyes went wide in surprise and she flinched away from me again. "It's ok, it's ok. You're safe now." I gently threaded an arm under hers and lifted her off the floor, helping her out to the couch.

We'd had it wrong. He hadn't killed her, he'd locked her up. Probably been using her as a slave for the past 17 years. No wonder they never found the body. And without the key… she probably hadn't eaten in days.

"Ambulance is on its way, ok?" I told her, then went back over to Sam, who hadn't moved. I sat on the floor, holding his hand and stroking his hair while I waited for the ambulance to arrive. I hoped they hurried.


	13. Chapter 13: Safe

I had just about worn a path into the scuffed lino of the hospital waiting room by the time the doctor appeared. "Mr Smith?" I nodded, "Is Sam ok?" I asked, unashamed of the desperation in my voice.

I hadn't seen him since the ambulance had driven him and Janai away from the house. They refused to let me join them when they were already transporting two patients. I had been furious, but eventually resigned myself to following in Baby. By the time I had reached the hospital Sam had been in surgery. He had punctured a lung.

"Your brother is going to be just fine." He assured me, and I felt myself slump in relief. "We will need to keep him in for a while. He's got a lot of healing to do." I nodded. As much as neither of us liked hospitals, at least he was alive.

"Can you tell me what happened?" He asked, "Your brother's injuries are…unusual."

No kidding, I thought to myself, thankfully the drive over had given me a little time to think of a story…of sorts…to answer the expected questions. I shook my head, "I don't know." I told him, letting my voice break, "He entered the house first. I was only just behind him, and I… I found him like that."

The doctor looked at me sympathetically, "And the suspect? I, uh, heard that you had gone to the house in relation to the deaths in town." I shook my head, looking at the floor, "He got away."

"I'm sorry." He said. "Would you like to see your brother now?" I nodded, and he led me down the corridor. "Here you are," he indicated towards a door, "Just press the call button if you need anything."

"Thanks" I steeled myself, putting on a brave face before entering the door, Sam didn't need to see how much he'd scared me back there.

I needn't have bothered. He was still unconscious, looking so fragile amongst the tubes and wire and beeping machines.

"Oh Sammy." I breathed, pulling a chair up next to the bed and holding his hand tightly.

* * *

I began to notice little things as felt myself floating slowly back into consciousness. The steady beep of a machine, the deep ache in my chest, the gentle pressure on my hand.

I lightly squeezed back, and felt the pressure increase slightly. "Sam? Sammy? You with me buddy?"

I struggled to push my eyes open, wincing a little against the bright lights. "Hey Sammy." I smiled a little at Dean's soothing voice, and swallowed as I tried to find my own. "De…" I coughed, and heard the beeping noise get faster as pain flared in my chest at the movement. My eyes fell closed again.

"Hey, hey, it's ok, just breathe." Dean was still holding my hand in one of his, and now I felt his other hand begin to stroke soothingly through my hair. "Wha..?" My brain felt slow, foggy.

"You've got a couple of broken ribs." He explained gently. "One of them punctured your lung."

I grimaced, "Ow." I could hear a trace of laughter in his voice when he spoke again, "Yeah, I know buddy. I've called the nurse, we'll get some more of the good stuff in you in a second."

I nodded lightly, squeezing his hand in thanks, and feeling him squeeze back.

The nurse arrived and asked me a few questions, which I struggled to answer, before I felt the soothing relief of the drugs pulling me back under again. "De.." I struggled to open my eyes again.

"Shh, just rest, I'm not going anywhere." He stroked a hand through my hair again and I nodded, letting go and falling back to unconsciousness.

* * *

It had been a couple of days since my housemate had opened the door to find me laid out on the front porch and rushed me to hospital.

I'd kept true to my word and had told anyone who asked that I had no memory of what had happened between walking out my door and finding myself back there again. This had got me plenty of scans and tests as they tried to determine the cause of my amnesia. Eventually they'd decide I had experienced some form of trauma that my brain had blocked out as a coping mechanism…not too far from the truth I supposed. I'm sure they'd have thought me completely crazy if I'd told them the actual truth.

They had also been baffled by the neat row of stitches in my side, which apparently were almost as good as those done by a doctor. I wondered again at how Dean had come to learn a skill like that.

Despite the skilled stitches I had picked up an infection, not surprising really, and so they were keeping me in hospital till it cleared.

It was a boring place to spend time, and so I was propped up in bed reading a novel when I heard someone knock lightly on the door.

I sat the book down, and looked up with a mixture of joy and surprise to see Dean standing there, holding a small teddy bear and looking a little awkward. "Dean! Hi, come in." I smiled and he came into the room, holding the teddy out to me. "I…um…for you." I laughed a little at his apparent embarrassment, "Thankyou" I said, taking the teddy and admiring it for a moment before sitting it next to me on the bed.

"How are you?" He asked, and I shrugged, "Could be worse. They've got me on antibiotics for an infection, but other than that, ok."

He frowned, "I'm sorry." He said quietly. "It's ok." I told him, smiling, "I'm ok."

He seemed to accept that I was sincere, as he finally smiled. "How about you?" I asked, "Did you…" I looked around quickly and lowered my voice, "Did you get it?"

He chuckled a little at my conspiratorial tone, then nodded, "Yeah…we got him." He looked serious again, "He didn't go down without a fight though."

I frowned, looking him over. He appeared unhurt, "Sam?" I asked cautiously.

He nodded, "Broken ribs and punctured lung." I gasped in shock, and he gave me a faint smile, "Don't worry…he's survived worse."

I stared at him for a moment…I didn't think I wanted to know. "How did you find me anyway?" I asked, changing the subject. I was pretty sure I never gave my last name.

This time when he smiled it went all the way to his eyes, "FBI, remember?" He said jokingly. I laughed, "Of course. How silly of me." I said with mock seriousness.

He gave me another genuine smile, "Sammy…he'd like to see you. If you're up to it?"

I grinned, "I'd love to, so long as you're happy to push" I nodded in the direction of a wheelchair pushed up against the wall. The combination of blood loss, infection and just the pain of having been stabbed made walking more than I could manage for the moment.

He nodded and I called the nurse to let her know where I was going and get her help getting out of bed.

Sam was sitting propped up in bed when we got to his room. He looked a little pale, but he grinned when he saw Dean wheeling me into the room. "Emily! Decide to put him to work did you?" I laughed and nodded.

"How are you feeling?" I asked him. "I'm ok" He answered, "Be better when they finally let me out of here." I smiled, I knew the feeling.

He gave me a more serious look. "I wanted to apologise for you getting dragged into this…and to thank you." I smiled at him lightly, "Like I said to Dean, I'm ok, really."

He tilted his head then smiled, "Yeah, you are. You're a tough one" he laughed lightly, "And I don't think we could have worked this one out so quickly without your help."

Dean nodded his agreement, "The info you gave us on Sarah and the three guys helped us put it all together and take out a dangerous witch. And," he mirrored the conspiratorial look I had done earlier, making me laugh, "You allowed us to save another woman's life. Just keep that to yourself till it's officially announced, ok?" He gave me a wink, I'd already shown that I could keep a damn big secret.

"So this is what you guys do." I commented, and they both nodded. "Well, on behalf of me and everyone who has no idea what happened this week…Thank you."

I was rewarded with two great big genuine smiles.

 **The End**

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 **Thank you to everyone for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! Please give feedback, let me know what you thought!**

 **I have lots of other stories floating around in my head waiting to be written, so I will be putting up some new stuff soon!**


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